religion in its conceptualisation of national identity, this can influence opportunities for acquiring or retaining citizenship and cause statelessness. States may use nationality policy as a way to subdue any perceived threat to domestic security or stability or to preserve the country’s demographic balance. This can lead to individual or group denationalisation for reasons varying from criminal acts to “disloyalty”. The same motivations have also contributed to restrictive naturalisation policies and hesitation on the part of states to fully resolve the situation of stateless persons within their jurisdiction. Some states have taken steps to tackle these causes of statelessness. In Egypt, for example, measures were recently put in place to address the difficulties that had been experienced by the country’s small Baha’i community for many years, by guaranteeing that members of religious minorities also have access to personal documentation, thereby strengthening the state’s efforts to prevent statelessness. In regard to security concerns, the region also provides examples of laws which successfully marry the desire to exclude from membership of the state those individuals who are deemed to be a threat, while ensuring that this does not lead to statelessness. Algeria, for example, permits the loss of nationality on various grounds, but has a safeguard in place to prevent statelessness from occurring in such situations. Algerian law also provides the additional protection of the right to a judicial remedy in decisions affecting nationality. Women, nationality and statelessness At the global level, women have traditionally found themselves in a disadvantaged or dependent position under nationality law. There is a growing global awareness, however, that gender discrimination in nationality law is in violation of international standards. The MENA region is an area of the world in which the reform of nationality laws to reflect these international standards has unfortunately been slower to arrive. The international community, through for instance the UN treaty bodies, has expressed concern at gender discrimination in the nationality laws of many MENA countries and the heightened risk of statelessness that results from such policies – especially for children of mixed-nationality parentage. Civil society groups have launched a region-wide campaign to amend such discriminatory legislation which affects a significant number of people. In Lebanon alone, approximately 17,860 Lebanese women are married to non-Lebanese and the children born to these unions will be at heightened risk of statelessness since they cannot acquire their mother’s nationality under Lebanese law. Many MENA countries have now pledged their commitment to reform their nationality laws. In fact, the campaign for a woman’s equal enjoyment of nationality rights has seen a number of real victories over the past decade, whereby several countries have adopted amendments to introduce gender equality in their laws and even taken steps to address any situations of statelessness that had arisen under the former legislation. Egypt reformed its law in 2004 to allow a child born to an Egyptian mother to acquire nationality regardless of the father’s status or the child’s place of birth. The amendment can be invoked retroactively, by application, for children born before its entry into force. Algeria and Morocco followed suit, passing reforms in 2005 and 2007 respectively – again with retroactive effect. Iraq’s 2006 23